Can a Feng Shui Expert Really Give Your Home Good Chi?

The ancient art is meant to improve your life by arranging your living quarters in a harmonious way. In the U.S., it has become a niche area of the booming interior-design industry. Here is a test of five feng shui practitioners in major cities.
By: Christina S.N. Lewis: The Wall Street Journal Online
Can a bowl with seven goldfish really make you rich?

Feng shui, an ancient Chinese art that traces back thousands of years, is meant to improve your life by arranging your home in a harmonious way.

Traditional feng shui has loyal followers around the world, particularly in Hong Kong, where residents follow it for advice on decisions about new apartments or office buildings.

In the U.S., the art form has become a niche area of the booming interior-design industry. There are about 350 American members of the International Feng Shui Guild, (compared with more than 38,000 members of the American Society of Interior Designers).

Unlike interior designers, who typically make their money by adding a markup to the furnishings their clients buy, feng shui experts charge a fee ranging from 30 cents to one dollar per square foot, or a flat fee. Some feng shui experts sell fountains, wind chimes, light-reflecting crystal balls and other "cures" that are frequently prescribed by feng shui.

To test if feng shui could make our homes more livable, we hired a feng shui expert in five major cities to evaluate our living spaces and give us recommendations.

Overall, we enjoyed looking at our homes in this new way and we received useful suggestions for improving the look and feel of our homes. But some practitioners also delivered some beliefs that we found a bit far-fetched. Our Dallas-based consultant suggested that we plant plastic flowers in our front yard, (just run them under water and set them outside to absorb the natural elements). A Los Angeles-based designer purified our home by burning native grasses, while we followed her with a gas fireplace clicker to keep the flames alight. Those who are uncomfortable with concepts like bad energy might be better off with an interior designer.

A feng shui expert divides the home into eight or nine areas, where each zone represents a specific part of life such as health, romance, career or finances. The rooms are tweaked to direct good energy, or chi, into the proper parts of the home, with particular attention to the main entrance, the bed, stove and work or office area. In addition, each room should have a balance between the five elements: earth, water, fire, wood and metal.

In Hong Kong, an epicenter of feng shui, we consulted a master with more than 20 years of experience. He arrived toting a book of fortunes for the next 10,000 years, a regular compass, and a Lo Pan, a special compass incorporating other feng shui information. He suggested we place a bowl in a corner with exactly seven goldfish - and one of them should be a different color than the other six - for extra wealth.

Our consultant in New York recommended adding more running water, like a fountain, although an aquarium or a lava lamp would work as well. She also suggested we move our desk away from some bookshelves that were "cutting our chi." The area indeed now feels more spacious and restful.

Our Chicago expert said an astrological chart indicated our tester's son should sleep with his head facing the opposite direction. He tried it and didn't like it. On a more practical note, she pointed out that our kitchen would feel bigger with a small, round or square rug.

Our Dallas-based expert said that our house's narrow entrance foyer was a big trouble spot. It opens directly facing a set of stairs - a feng shui no-no because energy immediately flows out of the house, instead of dispersing through it. She suggested round rugs to fix it. She also said that our writing would improve if we relocated our third-floor office to an unused room on the first floor, which is closer to our back yard - our prosperity and growth area.

Our consultant in Los Angeles suggested adding feminine furniture, such as round, low tables in the bedroom, which is also our prosperity area, to counterbalance the masculine feel caused by tall bed posts and a gas pipe. Although some of her suggestions were a bit kooky, such as placing a mirror under the bed to bounce away bad energy, many made the house more livable.

None of our testers has since become wealthy (so far), but maybe that's because no one bought any goldfish.

- Sarah McBride, Jonathan Eig, Geoffrey Fowler and Melanie Trottman contributed to this article.